SXSW Adds Rian Johnson, Ethan Hawke, Spike Lee To Conference Lineup

The forthcoming South By Southwest Conference and Festival is shaping up to be quite the confab. The fest has announced today a new wave of featured speakers including Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson, Oscar-nominated actor Ethan Hawke, Oscar winner & indie film pioneer Spike Lee and more. SXSW takes place March 9-18.

“The speakers announced today feature a diverse group of leaders and innovators that make SXSW the foremost destination for creative people,” said Hugh Forrest, Chief Programming Officer. “As SXSW celebrates the 25th year of Interactive and Film, the cross-industry talent announced today reflects the ongoing convergence of the modern world, the trends we see throughout our programming, and the paramount reason for our now unified conference experience.”

Read below about the new additions to the SXSW conference and festival lineup.

60 MINUTES: TV’s Most Successful Newscast Featured Session (News & Journalism) – Hear the stories and the backstories about the original television news magazine that’s been the favorite of Americans for generations. What keeps 60 Minutes ticking on in its record 50th season? Find out in a frank, humorous and insightful interview with its Executive Producer Jeff Fager conducted by 60 Minutes’s own Lara Logan.

José Andrés and Dana Cowin (Food) – Named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People and “Outstanding Chef” by the James Beard Foundation, José Andrés is an internationally-recognized culinary innovator, author, educator, television personality, humanitarian and chef/owner of ThinkFoodGroup. Dana Cowin has been a tastemaker, talent scout and innovator in media for the past 30 years. Her scope spans magazines, digital, social, books, restaurants, TV, video, radio, and events, as an influencer with a wide reach in the food world. José Andrés and Dana Cowin will join Andrew Zimmern in conversation.

Amber Venz Box (Startup & Tech Sectors) – Amber is the President and Co-Founder of rewardStyle and LIKEtoKNOW.it. A digital style influencer herself, Amber Venz Box conceptualized and launched rewardStyle at the age of 23 as a solution to monetize her fashion blog, venzedits.com. Amber has worked on all sides of the fashion industry: as a shop girl, an editorial stylist, a fit model, a retail buyer, and a jewelry designer. Her intimate understanding of the fashion industry, along with first-hand experience as an influencer, has helped to fuel rewardStyle’s global success.

Business on the Blockchain Featured Session (Intelligent Future) – Cryptocurrencies, distributed applications, and blockchain technology have all grabbed the public spotlight recently, but they sometimes seem to be evolving in separate silos. If we are to achieve an integrated Internet of Value that serves everyone, can we — should we — strive to bring them together? And what exactly does “enterprise blockchain” mean, anyway? Join Brian Behlendorf (Executive Director, Hyperledger) and Amber Baldet (Blockchain Lead, JPMorgan and Financial Industry Chair, Enterprise Ethereum Alliance) as they discuss what business might look like in a blockchain-enabled future and how the choices we make today — some incredibly technical, some undeniably human — are shaping the next generation of e-commerce.

Eddy Cue with Dylan Byers (Startup & Tech Sectors) – Eddy Cue is Apple’s Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services. Eddy oversees Apple’s industry-leading content stores including the iTunes Store and Apple Music, as well as Apple Pay, Maps, Search Ads, Apple’s innovative iCloud services, and Apple’s productivity and creativity apps. Eddy also leads the newly created team responsible for developing all aspects of Apple’s worldwide video programming. Eddy’s team has an excellent track record of building and strengthening online services to meet and exceed the high expectations of Apple’s customers. Dylan Byers is a Senior Reporter at CNN and the author of Pacific, a new venture on the business, culture and politics of innovation that launches this March.

From CBGB to the World: A Downtown Diaspora Featured Session (Music Culture & Stories) – Was it the sizzle or the steak—the fashions or the music, the images or the sounds — that made a tiny dive bar’s influence expand and persist in such an outsized way, even today? Was the abrupt shift in rock music styles in the late seventies and early eighties merely an idea whose time had come? Or was it, instead, individual, unique creative efforts — by members of the likes of Television, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, and the Ramones — that made all the difference? Featuring: Chris Frantz, Julia Gorton, Richard Lloyd, Chris Stamey, and Tina Weymouth.

Lena Dunham with Samantha Barry (Entertainment Influencers) – Lena Dunham is an actor, writer, director, producer, and philanthropist. She starred in and served as executive producer, writer, and director for HBO’s hit series Girls, which wrapped after six critically acclaimed seasons last spring. She has been nominated for eight Emmy Awards and has won two Golden Globes, including Best Actress for her work on Girls. Samantha Barry is the editor-in-chief of Glamour. Barry oversees all content development, production and consumer experiences for Glamour’s digital, social, video and print platforms.

The Female Voices of Film Twitter Featured Session (Film & TV Industry) – Fresh from the publication of her new book (Backwards & In Heels) chronicling the past, present and future of women in the film industry, Fandango correspondent and author Alicia Malone will moderate on the importance of the female voice in film commentary and social media. Joining Malone will be some of today’s best and brightest female film pundits including Amy Nicholson (Variety, The Canon), Jen Yamato (Los Angeles Times), and Monica Castillo (New York Times) who will provide advice for both aspiring journalists and filmmakers seeking to break into this industry to tell their stories on the big screen.

Ethan Hawke (Entertainment Influencers) – Ethan Hawke is a Tony- and four-time Academy Award-nominated actor and writer, whose diverse career as a novelist, actor, director, and screenwriter spans more than three decades. Blaze is his most recent foray into directing, which he also wrote and produced with his production company Under the Influence Productions. His other directing credits include Chelsea Walls, The Hottest State and the critically acclaimed documentary Seymour: An Introduction. His upcoming work includes Paul Schrader’s timely political and environmental thriller First Reformed. After the film screened at the 2017 Venice, Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals it was acquired by A24 and will release it in 2018.

Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman (Entertainment Influencers) – Rian Johnson is a Director, writer, and musician, among other things. His first feature film Brick was released in 2005 which received great critical and audience acclaim. Rian has written and directed features The Brothers Bloom and Looper. Having just released Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi, Rian is already writing his next independent feature. Producer Ram Bergman has fostered a successful partnership with director Rian Johnson, working together on four films over the last 15 years. Their collaborations include Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Johnson’s time-travel thriller Looper, as well as his earlier works The Brothers Bloom and Brick.

Karlie Kloss, Guy Raz and Eric Liedtke (Social Impact) – It takes open eyes to see what we can change for the better and curiosity to dig deep. It takes creativity to turn ideas into action, and just a single voice to speak. We live in a world where the brands we love can help solve the issues we care about, and where one person’s story, shared at scale, can inspire a movement. In conversation with Guy Raz, hear how learning to code inspired supermodel and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss to launch a nonprofit that empowers girls to learn to code and becomes leaders in tech, and how adidas Head of Global Brands Eric Liedtke channeled the power of sport as a connector to change the industry so we can protect our oceans and world around us. Forward-facing and driven to create a better tomorrow, make your next move to be in it for good.

John Krafcik (Intelligent Future) – John Krafcik is the CEO of Waymo, the self-driving technology company with a mission to make it safe and easy to move people and things around. Under John’s leadership, Google’s self-driving car project became Waymo, an independent Alphabet Inc. company. Since then Waymo has test-driven the world’s first fleet of self-driving vehicles on public roads without a driver at the wheel, completed 4 million autonomous miles, and struck up partnerships with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Lyft, Avis and more. In 2018, Waymo will launch an autonomous ride-hailing network to the public, beginning in Phoenix, Arizona.

Spike Lee (Entertainment Influencers) – Oscar winner Spike Lee is a director, writer, actor, producer, author and NYU Grad Film tenured professor whose body of work continues to grow. Recent projects include Lee’s filming of the play Pass Over, currently premiering at Sundance. He also directed the hit Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It, which will be returning for a second season and has just finished principal photography on his latest project, Black Klansmen. Lee has directed and produced over 30 films since his first feature film, the independently produced She’s Gotta Have It. Lee continues to produce cinematic works of art that display his skill and ability to showcase outspoken and provocative socio-political critiques that challenge cultural assumptions about race, class and gender identity.

Chelsea Manning with Sally Singer (Social Impact) – Chelsea E. Manning is a technologist and network security expert whose actions have shown the power of individuals to change the world through bravery, conscience, and determination. She speaks on the social, technological and economic ramifications of Artificial Intelligence, and on the practical applications of machine learning. She is a vocal advocate for government transparency and queer and transgender rights. She is a Democratic candidate for US Senate in Maryland. Sally Singer is the Creative Digital Director of Vogue. In this post, which she has held since 2012, she oversees all content and creative direction for Vogue.com, social media platforms and partnerships, as well as original video production.

Tatiana Maslany (Entertainment Influencers) – Tatiana Maslany is an Emmy Award-winning Actress who has garnered numerous accolades for her film and television roles. In 2010 she received the Sundance Breakout Actress Award, in 2014 she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and in 2015 she received her first Emmy Award nomination, going on to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2016. This past year brought Maslany to the large and small screen, with a starring role opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in the film Stronger based on a memoir by a Boston Marathon bombing survivor and the 5th and final season of BBC America’s Orphan Black.

Kara Swisher (News & Journalism) – Kara Swisher is the executive editor of Recode, the business and technology brand from Vox Media; host of the Recode Decode podcast, a bi-weekly interview series with the most influential business leaders; and co-executive producer of the Code Conference, a premier series that hosts hard-hitting interviews with the media and tech industry’s leading players. Kara Swisher will join a conversation with CNN chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour.

Westworld Featured Session (Entertainment Influencers) – Cast members Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, and Jeffrey Wright of the HBO drama series Westworld will join showrunners and creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy for an inside look at the award-winning show, which will return for its second season this spring.

Susan Wojcicki with Nicholas Thompson (Startup & Tech Sectors) – Susan Wojcicki is CEO of YouTube, the world’s most popular digital video platform used by a billion people across the globe to access information, share video, and shape culture. She oversees YouTube’s content and business operations, engineering, and product development. Nicholas Thompson is the editor-in-chief of WIRED. Thompson previously served as editor of NewYorker.com and senior editor at WIRED.